Facebook Announces Dating Feature For ‘Non-friends’

Facebook is emulating the dating app Tinder by announcing that they will offer a “dating feature” which will assist with meeting “non-friends.”

According to Tech Crunch, Facebook explains that “potential matches will be recommended based on dating preferences, things in common, and mutual friends. They’ll have the option to discover others with similar interests through their Groups or Events.” TechCrunch suggested that Facebook build a feature like this in February.

The newest feature will allow people opt-in and create a dating profile on Facebook. It will only be visible to non-friends who also opted into dating. Facebook will match you by a slew of preferences and because it has more data on you than any other app, it could deliver more relevant matches. The feature will start testing later this year.

Here’s how Facebook dating will work:

• Opt-in to a create a profile with just your first name. Your profile won’t be visible to friends, users who aren’t on the dating feature, and it won’t show up in the News Feed.
• You’ll browse Events in your city and Groups that match your interests. You can select to “unlock” one for dating. You’ll then see the profiles of other dating users who’ve unlocked that surface.
• You can browse through people’s profiles that show off a few of their photos plus some basic information about them. You’ll be shown people based on mutual interests and friends, plus other data Facebook has on you.
• If you both are interested, you’ll be able to start a conversation with someone in a special inbox that’s separate from Messenger and WhatsApp. For safety, only text can be sent for now.

Still, the lingering question is whether Facebook has built enough barricades between its social network and new dating feature. Users might find it creepy to do it all in one app especially considering the major privacy and personal data information concerns people have expressed about social media.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and later Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, explained, the new feature will only be available for Facebook users with a relationship status of “single.”

As if Facebook could get any creepier…